The period between Christmas and New Year is a weird time of year. The Orthodox churches won’t be celebrating the birth of Jesus until 7th January, and the Christmas season doesn’t officially end until Candlemas on February 2nd but the supermarkets have already swept away the Christmas decorations. The shelves are now full of hot cross buns and Easter eggs. It’s no wonder our mental health suffers at this time of year. The days are short, the nights are long and commercialism is trying to whip us up into another spending frenzy. What we all need is to take some Action for Happiness.
Stopping and Starting
Lots of us will have made New Year’s Resolutions that involve giving up something such as alcohol or meat (or in my case, general overeating). As well as denying myself in the cause of losing weight (ho hum) I’m starting something new this year. One of my Christmas presents was a voucher for a beginners art class.
I’m really excited about that. I’ve been sketching during odd moments over the past few days, because it’s been a very long time since I did any art. My powers of observation need to be sharpened up before I’m let loose on a canvas.
While I’m busy with pencils and charcoal, I’m not thinking about food – at least, that’s the theory. The trouble is, I use food as a crutch. I eat to cheer myself up, then I feel miserable because I’ve got no willpower. That’s why I’m also following Action for Happiness’s campaign on social media for a Happier January.
Action for Happiness
Action for Happiness is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation which aims to build a happier and kinder world. You can find out more about the movement here. Here’s their action plan for January:
Sometimes I find it hard to look a week ahead, let alone look forward to things any further in the future. At times like that, the first day of January’s challenge would have me waiting for the first snowdrops to some into flower, for the frogs to discover our new pond, and the next meeting of local writing groups.
Luckily, I’m feeling pretty cheerful at the moment. It didn’t take me long on New Year’s Day to think of three things I’m looking forward to this year…
Three Good Things
I’ll soon be watching my daughter being presented with her MA (with Merit!) in Museum Studies,
I’ve got tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show, and
I’m hoping to go up to London in the autumn and watch sumo.
On 2nd January I spent some time sketching, and today, 3rd January I gave OH the last slice of cake from the tin. Unfortunately, that triumph was really a cheat. I wanted to wash up the tin. If I hadn’t given him that slice, I would have been forced to eat it myself!
The next task on the Action for Happiness calendar is “Write a list of things you feel grateful for, and why.” That may take me some time…
Now It’s Your Turn…
Why don’t you have a go at one or two of these challenges, in aid of happiness? Let me know how you get on!
To Find Out More…
…about me, click here. To buy my latest book, Royal Hostage, click here, and to receive my monthly newsletter, click here.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Gloucestershire. The People’s Friend Festive Bumper Issue has arrived, complete with twenty-three stories (two of them mine!). Lemons, limes, and yuzu are ripening in the greenhouse. The log burner is crackling with good, dry wood harvested last year. I’ll soon be decanting homemade cassis into gift bottles, ready to give as presents. Sadly, I didn’t make any sloe gin this year. Despite our many blackthorn bushes and trees, only one sloe made it to full size. Then one night it vanished, and before it was properly ripe. I suspect a mouse!
‘The People’s Friend’ –Short Stories for Christmas
The last couple of weeks I have been lucky enough to have several pieces of my work published under The People’s Friend banner. My pocket novel Robin’s Nest was published on 24th of October as Number 1029 in The People’s Friend Pocket Novel Library. Then this week, I’ve had more good news. The People’s Friend Festive Bumper Issue dated the 7th of December features TWO of my stories!
My Stories
In Gingerbread Traditions, Marian is feeling lonely as she settles in to her new home in a strange town. Then a neighbour invites her to take part in the local Victorian Christmas Fair. That’s when Marian finds her new house has played a starring role in a very special competition.
I think Finch the Grinch, the second story, is my favourite piece of all the short fiction I have written so far for The People’s Friend. It’s Christmas, but Gary Finch hasn’t got any reason to feel cheerful. After losing his job he tried to make it as an artist, but his new career hasn’t worked out. Molly, his wife, has been busy organising a Walking Nativity to bring some Christmas cheer to their town. Gary has been feeling too dispirited to take part. Can the season of goodwill work its magic on him?
The People’s Friend and Me
There was always a copy of The People’s Friend lying about the house when I was growing up. The weekly magazine’s combination of interesting articles and cheering stories lost its hold over me when I became a rebellious teenager, but I rediscovered its value after I became a mother. My son developed a series of medical conditions which required sometimes weekly trips to hospital. The magazine, together with its regular seasonal specials and bimonthly Pocket Novels, is always stocked by the hospital shop. It was then that I discovered the true purpose of The People’s Friend. It’s the perfect comfort and distraction during long waits for treatment, results, or items from the pharmacy.
The magazine covers serious topics as well as light-hearted ones, but whatever the subject, The People’s Friend deals in hope. That’s why the stories it contains are always upbeat, with a happy-ever-after ending (or at least, a happy-for-now-ending).
Optimism is vital when things look bleak. I like to think that my writing for The People’s Friend will make readers smile in the same way I’ve been cheered in the past by the work of its other writers.
I often include short stories in my monthly newsletter, along with news of my life and writing here in Gloucestershire, and offers of free books like these…
If you sign up for my newsletter here, I’ll send you a free copy of Royal Rivals, the prequel to my series of Royal Romance novels.
To Find Out More…
…about me, click here. To buy my latest book, Royal Hostage, click here
This week, the people of Florida are trying to survive Hurricane Milton. How on earth did America’s first European settlers react to the violent storms, excessive heat, and tremendous cold that continent endures?
Many pioneers travelled across the Atlantic from my home county of Somerset. It’s generally low-lying land, well-watered by wet south westerly winds blowing in off the Bristol Channel. Grass grows well, which makes it good dairying country. The sort of people who produce Cheddar cheese and cider prefer a quiet life to shocks and danger. Most of the time Somerset is a peaceful, beautiful place, but once or twice the weather has sprung some surprises.
17th Century Woodcut of the Bristol Flood
The Bristol Floods
On 30th January 1607 (the same year the Virginia company established Jamestown), the Bristol Floods killed 2,000 people. A storm surge forced water up to fourteen miles inland. Across south Wales and the west of England a huge amount of farmland was inundated, and thousands of animals were drowned. Floodwaters reached a depth of five feet in Kingston Seymour. Someone chiselled a mark on the church wall at the highest point the floodwater reached. It stands twenty-five feet five inches above sea level.
The Great Flood of 1968
Three hundred and sixty one years later, on 10th July 1968, another terrible disaster struck Somerset. After days of heavy rain, an enormous thunderstorm broke over the valley of the River Chew. In the village where I was born, it rained so hard it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. Over five inches of rain fell in twenty-four hours.
On a normal July evening it’s light in England until nearly ten o’clock. On that evening in 1968 thunderclouds made it unnaturally dark, while constant lightning turned the sky a sickly greenish yellow. We lived a safe distance above the river, but water barrelling off the surrounding farmland swept into our house. Luckily it only reached a depth of a few inches. Others weren’t so lucky. The usually peaceful little River Chew soon broke its banks. People living near the river took refuge on the upper floors of their houses, or on the roof. Many had to be rescued before their houses were washed away.
Water draining from the surrounding hills added to the falling rain. The water level rose very quickly. The dam at Litton, twelve miles south west of our village, held back a huge amount of water, fallen trees, cars, and debris.
…And Then It Got Worse…
Just before 10pm the dam gave way. With a huge explosion, it sent a wall of water downstream. The flood engulfed the village of Pensford, tearing Bridge House in half and wrecking many other properties. Floodwater picked up cars parked in the village, and carried them downstream.
The two bridges in my home village were much bigger and stronger than the Pensford bridges. Even so, the storm surge wrecked them both. It was many months before life got back to normal along the Chew valley. You can find out more about The Great Flood of 1968 here.
The River Chew flood wasn’t on the same scale as a hurricane or twister but it was awful enough. Although the valley wasn’t very densely populated at the time, the disaster killed seven people. Over £10m (about $13m) of damage was done, which at today’s prices would be about £217m ($284m).
2024 has been an exceptionally wet year here in England. Today has been the first day without any rain for a long time. We lost some tiles in a storm earlier this week which caused the roof to leak but compared to what the population of Florida are going through, that’s nothing.
Let’s hope the rest of the autumn turns out to be less eventful than the first few weeks. I’m going to retreat to my office and do some writing in the warm and dry.
I’ve been a full-time writer for a long time. Today’s blog is about how I write, and what I write about. Read on to learn the secrets of my success!
How I Write
The short answer is, I write whenever and wherever I can. The more detailed answer is sitting (whether at my desk, or in bed) in silence, and using a pencil and on paper. The best advice I can give you is to simply start. Whether you write, dictate or type, getting words out of your head and onto a page is the best encouragement I know. Then all you have to do is keep going.
In The Mood?
One thing I never do is wait for the writing muse to arrive. Unless I reserve a block of time each morning to sit down and write, there’s always some distraction calling me away from my desk. If I waited for inspiration to strike, I’d never get anything done!
A trick I use to making starting work easier begins the day before. I stop writing when I’m full of ideas and racing to get them down on paper. Next day, I can’t wait to take up where I left off the night before. During my writing sessions, I use a modified Pomodoro technique–that is, I set a timer for twenty minutes, and write as hard and as fast as I can. I don’t bother about grammar, spelling or punctuation. It’s getting the words down that matters. When the timer goes off, I get up and walk round my desk. After three twenty-minute bursts, I take a longer break to make a cup of tea, visit the greenhouse, water the houseplants, and refill the bird feeders.
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money” wrote Samuel Johnson, and it’s how I started. I was a freelance, writing non-fiction articles on country living for magazines, and illustrating them with my own photographs.
Getting paid for your writing is the ultimate in validation, but it’s now only one of many reasons why I write. It’s great therapy. Keep a journal, and record your blessings every day as well as your trials. When I was a child, I loved escaping my unhappy life into a world of my own invention. Once I was happily settled with a partner and family, I turned to creating escape routes for others. You can find out more about some of my books here.
Planning or Discovery
I can’t definitively call myself either a planner, or a pantser (discovery writer). If I’m writing a seasonal article or story, its content and deadline has to be planned carefully. The same applies when I’m putting together a series of books, such as Royal Romances (Royal Passion and Royal Risk)
Beyond those boundaries, I’m happy to write by the seat of my pants and become a discovery writer. Sometimes an idea will comes to me and I scribble away spontaneously, discovering how the characters and plot develop as I work.
This is why I find Scrivener so useful. I’ll be blogging on that subject again soon, but you can read one of my original posts about Scrivener here.
Get Comfy
Sitting is supposed to be the new smoking! My writing life is very sedentary. That’s why writing sprints (see In the Mood? above) are so useful. The time spent getting up every twenty minutes and walking about every hour helps prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis. I’ve been considering a walking desk for a while, but I’ve tried writing while standing up and I don’t like it. I much prefer to sit to the task. My current office chair is an Aeron, and it’s amazingly comfortable. It’s like sitting in a hug!
Read, Read, Read
This is probably the most important tip for anyone who wants to become a writer. I’ve loved reading since I was big enough to pick up a book. Before I start a new project, I read as much as I can in the genre in which I’ll be writing. The genre is the style or category, such as Romance, or Crime/Mystery.
Writing for publication is all about satisfying reader expectations. When you read widely you’ll not only learn how it’s done, you’ll discover the tropes that reader love to see included in their favourite books.
Tropes are popular ideas and themes. There are dozens of these, and they provide an easy way for readers to home in on the type of book they’re looking for. Three from the Romance genre are Enemies to Lovers, Forbidden Love, or Secret Baby. Mystery/Crime has Victim as Villain (everybody hated them, so there are multiple suspects), the alcoholic or otherwise troubled detective, and that Agatha Christie regular, Phonecall Foreshadows Death. “I’ve got something important to tell you, M. Poirot. Meet me at seven o’clock…” and when Hercule arrives at the rendezvous, the caller has been murdered!
That’s a quick run-down of how I write. To find out what I’m working on at the moment, see my latest cover reveal, get behind the scenes news, offers and more, sign up for my newsletter here.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are a great source of pub quiz questions. How many can you name? They are: the Colossus of Rhodes; the Great Pyramid of Giza; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia; the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; and Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Before watching Bettany Hughes’s TV series The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World I could only remember two. They were the hanging gardens and the library, but then I love both gardening, and books.
Our local independent bookshop, Rossiter, arranged for Bettany Hughes to appear in Monmouth and talk about her latest book, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. DD got tickets for us. She did well to buy them early. The event was a sell out.
Bettany Hughes is an English historian and broadcaster, specialising in classical history. The author of five books about ancient history, she is a founding patron of the UK based charity Classics For All. This promotes Classics in state (that is, non-fee-paying) schools, and areas of the country such as inner cities where the Classics aren’t well known . What use are dead languages and ancient history in the twenty-first century? Bettany has the perfect answer.
Veni, Vedi, Captus Sum
That’s the nearest my feeble Latin can get to I came, I saw, I was arrested. In her early twenties, Bettany travelled to Romania to study ancient feminine figurines such as these:
While she was there, the Romanian Revolution broke out. She rushed back to England and safety, but then had second thoughts. There’s only one sure way to know exactly what is going on in a foreign country. That’s to be on the spot, so she went straight back to Romania. The authorities took a dim view about the swift return of an attractive young woman who spoke no Romanian. They arrested her, and things might have turned nasty. Luckily, the modern Romanian language developed from Latin. Bettany managed to use her knowledge of Latin to create a kind of Pidgin Romanian. She talked her way out of trouble. It goes to show that even today, Classics can get you out of a tight spot…
…Or Help You When You Are In One…
Bettany’s tutor at university, Robin Lane Fox, told his students they should go to the places where history happened. They shouldn’t become armchair historians. She took that to heart. Despite having a life-long horror of small spaces, Bettany often explores them for the sake of her TV programmes.
Claustrophobia is a fear many of us can relate to, but Bettany manages to overcome it. Greek myths help her, especially the story of Perseus. He was the half-man, half god who killed the snake headed monster Medusa. Perseus used Medusa’s severed head to turn the evil giant Titan to stone. Then like all true heroes Perseus got the girl, Andromeda, by killing the sea monster Cetus.
Perseus had to confront not just monsters, but the fear of fear itself. Bettany finds it useful to remember that everyone feels afraid sometimes. That’s not a cure, but it helps to keep her calm.
Inspiration
In 1972 the Treasures of Tutankhamun visited the British Museum London. It still ranks as the most popular exhibition in the museum’s history. Bettany saw it, and developed a life-long passion for ancient Egypt. At the time, she recorded in her school project, Bettany’s Busy Book, that “sum (sic) mosquitoes…” that were “…a bit germy bit Tutankhamun, and he died”.
When Bettany was older, one of her teachers showed her class a picture of a mysterious Minoan snake goddess. This puzzle inspired Bettany to study history at university.
Minoan Snake Goddesses Via Wikipedia, ΘεέςτωνΌφεων_6391
After graduating from St Hilda’s College, Oxford, she got a shock when applying to the BBC in the 1990s. A producer told her that nobody was interested in history anymore, nobody watched history programs on TV, and nobody wanted to be lectured at by a woman. Bettany saw that as a challenge, and has spent the past three decades proving him wrong.
The Seven Wonders of The Ancient World
Antonis Chaliakopoulous (MSc Museum Studies, BA History & Archaeology), has written a great piece for The Collector about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Wonders are all situated around the Mediterranean and Near East. Bettany Hughes started visiting Türkiye and Greece in her teens. Then family life intervened, and she didn’t reach Egypt until she was in her thirties. The pyramids still overawe her, although she has visited them many times. At 4,600 years old they are the oldest buildings ever made by human hands, and the heaviest. The precision of their construction is awesome.
Why Seven?
The number seven has long been seen as a lucky number in many countries. “Seven Top Tips” is a popular blog offering even today. People in ancient times loved a list as much as we do. Lists bring order to chaos, and structure to our lives. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are actually part of a much bigger list of ancient lists. These include the Seven Best Mountains, the Seven Most Beautiful Springs, and the Seven Finest Generals.
The Power of Wonder
Bettany says The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World should remind us of the power of wonder. If we wonder, then we connect. If we connect, then we understand. If we understand we care–even if we’re separated from these ancient civilisations by millennia. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are positive examples of human endeavour in its broadest sense, even though some were built by slave labour. They are proof that collaboration can achieve so much more than the work of an individual, no matter how talented they might be. We all need wonder in our lives, especially these days when the internet has the power to drown out optimism and achievement by amplifying everything that is bad in the world.
If you get the chance, go and see Bettany Hughes speak. She’s great fun, and wears her immense knowledge lightly. In real life, she is every bit as lively and engaging as she appears on TV. I loved her gold sneakers. Professor Mary Beard also has a pair. They must be the perfect combination of comfort and fashion!
